Connie Bensen

I’m at the Social Media Strategies Conference in San Francisco. Yesterday Twitter was mentioned often so I offered to present some business cases for using it. You can watch the conference being live streamed.

Twitter has become a valuable tool for business use. There are so many opportunities to leverage it’s capabilities in a  way that is relevant & provides value.

• Customer Relations
  • @netsolcares   @comcastcares
• Crisis Communications
  • opportunity to respond immediately before it escalates to blogs & other channels
• Crowd Sourcing
  • product development,
  • survey customer satisfaction
• Build Brand & Communications
  • offer assistance – How can we help you? @ChrisBrogan style
  • brand presence
• Lead Generation
  • new markets
• Customer references – star items – refer people to the URL of favorites
  • I made one for Techrigy SM2
  • how to create it
    • use search.twitter.com to search for pertinent tweets
    • open tweet & star them which will propogate the favorites
• Announce new services, coupons & information
  • @digitalscrap
  • no push marketing please
• Professional Networking

Laura Fitton @pistachio has a comparison chart for the various microblogging platforms.

• For searching past twitter conversations: search.twitter.com
• For monitoring twitter: tweetbeep.com (there is also tweetscan, but it’s not as good)

This has replaced my Google Reader for RSS feeds. By monitoring the tweets in my topic area (ex: social media monitoring and my own name including misspellings) they gather the latest URL’s pertinent to my area of interest

If you’re just getting started with Twitter I have a post, Twitter 101, with links to resources for getting started. I also provide consulting in the areas of social networking & branding. Feel free to email me at conniebensen @ gmail.com

And definitely follow me on Twitter!  @cbensen

What business value does Twitter provide you with? And what are your success stories?

Here’s  a book that’s soon to be published that has my endorsement – I’ve read parts of it. (It’s written by a Minnesotan, so it has to be good! @jojeda )

Twitter Means Business: How Microblogging can Help or Hurt Your Company

That should probably be plural because I have scheduled four events across four days in San Francisco! It’s going to be a fabulous time of meeting friends, reconnecting with some & meeting new people!

This may be a little crazy for a Minnesotan to be planning a blogger dinner in San Francisco, but I want to meet my friends! And if you’re a community manager or interested in social media – then join us!

We’re meeting on Tues at  6:30 pm or so for  dinner  & socializing at:

21st Amendment, 563 2nd Street, San Francisco, CA 94107

Location:  http://tinyurl.com/6jk8j5

Directions from the conf. hotel – http://tinyurl.com/5py5×9

If you’re coming – drop me an email or leave a comment here so can give a count to the restaurant (as fair warning!  ).  Email me at conniebensen @ gmail.com

I look forward to seeing you in San Fran! A huge thank you to Stacy Stone for helping choose a venue!

Sound like fun? People have been asking where will it be at. When will it be?

It’s time to start planning for 2009! Yesterday I asked my Twitter network what speakers they’d like to hear & on what topics? I also suggested that people could practice shameless self-promotion. If you are passionate about a topic & would love the opportunity to speak… now is the time to speak up! Here are the ideas that surfaced:

• internal community manager
• community managers in government – military social media
• how community managers are doing more with less
• building & growing public facing community

From Twitter

• franswaa  what about something specific to nonprofits using social media … i don’t see much specifically for nonprofits out there
• sondernagle  I’d like to see @marshallk speak about comm. managers for startups
• communitygirl I just heard Anil Dash @convergesouth on Friday and he was awesome. I enjoy talking about smaller local online communities

What topics would you like to hear about or speakers that you’d like to hear? If you’re a company, what are you interested in?  You’re welcome to email me at conniebensen (at) gmail.com 

Someone told me that community managers aren’t interested in networking because they do it day in & day out. My sense is that that is so not the case! We thrive on being interactive. And the nature of the job results in situations that we want to consult with peers & mentors about. Here are places to meet like minded people & connect. And even if you aren’t a community manager, but you’re interested in social networking& branding, feel free to join these conversations!

Facebook

The Facebook group is very active. We’re soon going to have 2000 members there! And there are 120 discussion topics. People are seeking help & helping each other.

Friendfeed

On Friendfeed I created a room for Community Managers. I just popped over there & see that it’s active. Yay! Join in the conversation there.

Twitter

If Twitter is your thing then there are the Twitterpacks (I created a section for Community Managers). Here you will find many community managers & you can also add your username. The password is ‘project’. (The info went missing for a bit & gave me a scare, so I put a copy on my wiki. The password is ‘build’. Put your info on either & some day I’ll get them reconciled.)

Contribute to a Project to Create a White Paper

My work is gratifying but my professional involvement also adds to my satisfaction. Here’s an opportunity to get involved to further the community manager role. Axel from Xeequa has started a collective effort for a white paper on Best Practices for Community Manager Responsibilities. We invite you to add your ideas. It’s a pbwiki so easy to edit!

Where are you networking at & getting involved at a professional level?